Ad Roundup: Funding and Acquisition News

Advertising headlines this week include an acquisition that may change how mobile video viewers engage with content and funding to help expand a promising ecommerce platform.

First, Volusion has secured a $35 million funding round from Silicon Valley Bank; part of that funding will be used to expand their MOZU ecommerce platform. The platform is an API-first offering designed to help optimize enterprise etailers.

"We have aggressive expansion plans in the coming years for Volusion, Inc. as we continue to grow our SMB offering, as well as disrupt the enterprise commerce space with the Mozu platform. We have reimainged commerce and Mozu fulfills our vision of truly limitless commerce for the largest retailers in the world. This funding enables us to reach our goals for extensive growth and to satisfy the increasing aspirations of businesses of all sizes in their quest to dominate their markets," said Clay Olivier, CEO, Volusion, Inc.

Over the past five years Volusion reports significant growth, including the launch of MOZU and the addition of 400 employees.

Meanwhile, video network Outcast Media has been acquired by Gilbarco Veeder-Root, a retail petroleum tech firm. Gilbarco already owns Applause TV; the addition of Outcast to their platform could help them create the largest one-to-one mobile video platform.

"In 2010, we chose Outcast as our media partner for its industry leadership and innovative vision: building the largest and most targeted video network for reaching the on-the-go consumer," said Michael Schulte, president North America from Gilbarco. "The addition of Outcast to Gilbarco's team allows us to work even more closely with them on technology innovations like consumer targeting that will help our convenience store customers reach and engage consumers and compete against other channels."